Product Description

Brilliant, brave, controversial, combative, intellectual - just how do you become Janet Street-Porter?
Born in working-class Fulham to parents who for years she refused to believe were really hers, Janet loathed her mother, tried to murder her sister, and had a friend who was given a life sentence for a contract killing. In a household subsumed with repressive 'Welshness' (even the budgerigar spoke Welsh), she found solace in unsuitable friendships and outrageous behaviour.
In this mesmerising account of growing up in post-war London there is poignancy, mystery - and a trademark black humour. BAGGAGE will touch readers at many levels; it is as edgy and fearless as Janet Street-Porter herself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68463 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'An entertaining and often moving memoir, Baggage is written with all the fervour of a belligerent' -- Telegraph 20050115 'You read every page entertained, mesmerised and amazed' -- Independent on Sunday 20050102 'Her admirers will find the honesty with which she writes satisfying' -- Sunday Times 20050116 'Witty and extrovert, ruthlessly ambitious and unforgiving, Street-Porter would, on the evidence of this book, make a horrible enemy but a great friend' -- Independent on Sunday 20041219

From the Back Cover
Brilliant, brave, controversial, combative, innovatory, intellectual…just how do you become Janet Street-Porter?

About the Author
Janet Street-Porter began her career at the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard. She has been a producer and broadcaster for LBC Radio, LWT, cable channel L!ve TV and the BBC, where she won a BAFTA for originality. She is now Editor-at-Large for the Independent.

Customer Reviews

so what?
It's very hard to know what to make of this book. I confess that the only reason I bought it was because I had read an absolutely savage review of it elsewhere, and I wanted to know what it was that had caused such bile on the part of the reviewer. Janet Street-Porter is one of those people who are always trumpeted as being "controversial", and her biog. certainly seemed to be having that effect, so I thought I would give it a go. The first thing I noticed was that I really wasn't getting as much as I thought I was. It's a small hardback, with big print and blank pages between chapters, an old trick to make a book look more substantial that it really is. Not only that but a lot of these pages are taken up with old desperately dull black-and-white family photographs. The publicity blurb markets the book as the answer to anyone wanting to know what it was that made J S-P the person she is, which can only result in a bemused shoulder-shrugging reaction as far as I can see!

J S-P herself seems to want us to believe that she had a traumatic childhood. Now I don't know about you but when someone says they had a traumatic childhood, I think of harrowing tales I've heard of abuse, neglect, severe deprivation, putting up with alcohol- or drug-dependant parents, or growing up in the grimmest kind of Care. J S-P suffered none of these. She was well cared for, got given everything her hardworking parents could afford, was not beaten or abused, or humiliated on a regular basis. Her parents obviously weren't the warmest or most affectionate of people, but that was pretty par for the course for a lot of working-class families at the time. Their biggest "crime" was a lack of imagination, but in their own way they did want the best for her. Perhaps I missed something vital here, but J S-P gives us an example of something that happened when she was 14, which she seriously wants us to believe was an example of how "cruel" her parents could be ...er, they decided to move house. I had a sort of confused, open-mouthed reaction to that one!

J S-P has said she didn't write this book as any kind of score-settling, but it sure as heck feels that way! Her constant crowing that her mother was jealous of her success, because her mother had to leave school at 14, just sounds horribly mean-spirited. It's like some terrible joke, the self-important media darling with the inflated ego ranting about what a deprived upbringing they had! This isn't exactly "Mommie Dearest" or "A Child Called It", more a 276-page whinge of "my parents didn't understand me". If you're interested in what it was like to grow up in a terraced house in Fulham in the 1950s, with the family listening to "Two-Way Family Favourites" over Sunday lunch, and summer holidays in North Wales (when the poor deprived darling would rather have stayed in London), then this is the book for you, for me it was a thundering disappointment. The most startling thing about it for me was the revelation that J S-P seems to have inherited her father's complete lack of a sense of humour!

Ordinary baggage
An interesting title for a book of Janet's childhood. I had heard her speak about her horrendous mother on t.v. so I wanted to know what that was all about. What a spoilt, selfish, snobbish and self-absorbed person Janet Street Porter is! This is an ordinary upbringing in London and the suburbs but the author's emotions are remarkable. Being moved away from friends but still within visiting distance is hardly worthy of all the hatred she nurtured over the years. I loved it when Janet relayed the story of her sister stealing her money and running away. Janet was angry that she didn't have the brains or guts to think of it first. Her early experiences with men are sad and pathetic. Janet, you have a made a big fuss about nothing - grow up already!

Fortunate Girl I'd say!!
I have to agree with the top reviewer here. I read this book with an open mind as I quite like the author, but gradually I began to wonder what on earth Mrs J Street-Porter had to worry about during her childhood! I think the thing that really annoyed me was when she announced that she (and her sister) got £1 per week pocket money in, if my maths are correct, somewhere around 1962 !!!! Sounds pretty good to me - I think I got half a crown (whatever that is).

I believe she needs to come to terms with the fact that her parents, siblings, upbringing and, yes, the dreaded house-move, made her the person she is today - strong and resourceful and a role model for young women everywhere. There are many books around today describing disadvantaged backgrounds but, alas, this isn't one of them. I would have preferred to read an optimistic book about how she achieved such a high-flying career!